On Thursday, Canada had a national holiday. The day was marked by a grim reckoning over its colonial history, after more than 1,000 unmarked graves were found near former boarding schools for indigenous children.

Several cities across the country cancelled their traditional Canada Day celebrations. The Canada day celebrations are usually marked by fireworks and barbecues. This year, it was different. The hashtag #CancelCanadaDay was trending on social media. Rallies in support of the indigenous community were held around the country.

The traditional Canada Day was cancelled in many cities as several graves were found near indigenous schools. Citizens marched to protest against the cultural genocide.

This year discoveries were made of the unmarked graves of hundreds of Indigenous children. These discoveries are sending shockwaves across Canada and throughout North American Indigenous communities. In the latest discovery in recent weeks, an Indigenous community in western Canada has found 182 unmarked graves near a former boarding school for Indigenous children.

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The experts who found the graves used ground penetrating radar mapping. This technology helped them to locate what are believed to be the remains of Indigenous children. The children whose graves were found were between the ages of seven and 15. The graves were found at St Eugene’s Mission School near Cranbrook, British Columbia.

The Indigenous children were forced to attend the institution in a state effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. The institution was run by the Catholic Church. It operated from 1890 until 1970, as per the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.

The search of the grounds began last year. The children are believed to be members of bands of the Ktunaxa Nation. This ethnic group includes the Lower Kootenay and other neighbouring Indigenous communities.

From the mid-1800s to mid-1900s, the children were students at residential boarding schools. They died far from home after having suffered brutal abuse and neglect. As part of forced ethnic-cultural assimilation, Indigenous children in both Canada and the United States were taken away from their families for decades. They were sent to boarding schools, where they were forced to assimilate into Euro-American culture.

On June 24, Cadmus Delorme, Chief of the Cowessess First Nation, announced the discovery of 751 unmarked graves of mostly indigenous children. They were discovered at the cemetery of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in the southeast corner of the Saskatchewan province.

In late May, Chief Roseanne Casimir, of the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation had announced that researchers used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to discover the unmarked burials of 215 students. The burials were found at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.  It was found that some children buried onsite had been as young as 3 years old. The Cowessess First Nation initiated the scanning of Marieval with GPR on June 2, after the Kamloops news broke.

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A total of 182 unmarked graves were found near a former boarding school in British Columbia where indigenous children were forcibly assimilated. The 154th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation came one day after this discovery of 182 unmarked graves.

This discovery is the latest in a series that have outraged the country. Last week 751 similar graves were found near a school in Marieval in western Saskatchewan province. At the end of May, 215 more graves were found at another school in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Around 150,000 indigenous, Inuit and Metis youngsters were forcibly enrolled in the 139 schools until the 1990s. In those schools, the indigenous students were physically and sexually abused by headmasters and teachers. In such schools in (Canada and US) the teachers, headmasters and school authorities stripped them of their native culture.

More than 4,000 such children died of disease and neglect in the schools. This disclosure came from a commission of inquiry that concluded Canada had committed “cultural genocide.”

In a statement given on Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “The horrific findings have rightfully pressed us to reflect on our country’s historical failures, and the injustices that still exist for Indigenous peoples and many others in Canada.” He further reflected, “We as Canadians must be honest with ourselves about our past.”

The city council of Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, voted unanimously to cancel their planned virtual celebrations, days after the Kamloops discovery.

Early Thursday in Toronto, demonstrators marched wearing orange T-shirts. The march was in support of indigenous communities. Many demonstrators carried signs with slogans such as “No pride in genocide.”

In Montreal, thousands held a similar rally with slogans like “Happy denial day.”

Therese Dube, 56, is an indigenous woman from the Akikamekw nation and a survivor of one of the residential schools in Quebec. An emotional Therese Dube said, “I come here because I have small children and I think it is important to send the message that we do not want our children to be touched, to be mistreated.”

April Courtney Kipling is another 29-year-old indigenous woman. She came “to remember, to recognize all the children who will never go home.”

Other residents of the region had a more pointed reason for showing up. Olivia Lya, a 22-year-old Innu woman said, “Canada Day is like celebrating genocide.”

Nakuset is co-organiser of the Montreal Native Women’s Shelter. In a statement, she said, “Anyone celebrating Canada on July 1 is celebrating oppression.”

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The presence of non-indigenous Canadians at the Montreal rally was noted by the numerous indigenous people. Nadine Bellerose Lavallee, a 50-year-old Metis woman said, “It is hopeful, it shows that people are listening.”

Quebec premier Francois Legault said, “This year, the tragic history of residential schools has overshadowed Canada Day celebrations.”

Opposition leader Erin O’Toole defended Canada Day. Erin, however, admitted that Canada is “not a perfect country.” The Conservative leader further said, “The road to reconciliation does not start by tearing Canada down.”

As a result of the discovery of the graves, there have been protests across Canada. In Winnipeg, in the central Canadian province of Manitoba, a statue of Queen Victoria, the 19th century ruler of the British empire, was covered in red paint and toppled.  Local media reported that at least ten churches suffered damage in Calgary, in the western province of Alberta.

To honour indigenous children, the Canadian flag on the Peace Tower in Ottawa was flown at half-mast. Similarly, the flag on the central tower of the Quebec National Assembly was also flown at half-mast.

In the late nineteenth century, the Canadian schooling -system systematically separated Indigenous children from their families. The system was funded by the Department of Indian affairs. It sent the indigenous children to boarding schools operated by church and government across the country. The findings of the graves have rekindled a national reckoning with the traumatic history of Canada’s residential schooling system which had its roots in imperial colonialism.